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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Special election for what?[/quote]

To throw out the constitutional requirement voted in by around 2/3 of fairfax residents that requires all voting districts to be drawn by an independent coalition.

The "Fair" Voting Act replace the independent commisdion with a gerrymandered map in violation of the Virginia Constitution, that divides Fairfax county into 5 congressional districts around 15 miles apart.

In the new gerrymandered map voted on in April, the new state government:

District 11 goes through 14 counties in a giant V shape, from Arlington at the point out to rural virginia hours away past Harrisonburg and Charlottesville on one leg and around Goochland County on the other end, wrapping around Richmond.

District 8 is like a lizard doing a headstand with its tail in the air, starting with a sliver of Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax and Prince William counties, through 16 counties down to around Glouchester County near Williamsburg.

[img]https://virginiamercury.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/proposed-2026-redistricting-map-1536x814.png[/img]

County map:

[img]https://gisgeography.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Virginia-County-Map-1265x635.jpg[/img][/quote]

The amendment gives voters a choice as to whether they want to amend the Virginia constitution to temporarily redraw the congressional maps or not. The voters get to make the decision. This is a choice being given to the voters in response to Republicans gerrymandering (without voter approval) all over the country in an attempt to rig the midterm elections in favor of Trump so he doesn't lose control of the House.[/quote]

The amemdment does not follow the constitutional process in Virginia, which is a two year process at the minimum.

Texas does not have a constitution that prevents gerrymandering.  Virginia does.

Our legislature and governor are violating the constitution by doing this.  They are disenfranchising 45% of the state.  Their job is to represent Virginia.  This is wrong and you know it.

You are arguing "Texas did it first"

Well, if you look at the old Texas map vs the new Texas map, without the year on it, and were asked to pick the gerrymandered map, 100% of people would select the old map as the gerrymandered map.

The new maps in Texas have much more compact voting districts than the old map.  The new Texas map is [i]less[/i] gerrymandered than the original map.

Most of the Texas voting districts are condensed squarish districts with just a few counties, in the old maps and the new maps.  The districts all have common interests.  The only Texas districts that aren't compact are the ones in rural west and south Texas,  where you can drive hours between towns, and the handful of previously gerrymandered districts from the old Texas map, which are now gone and condensed into geographically adjacent areas.

If the Virginia legislature redistricted in a similar way to Texas by making the districts more compact, just moving boundaries slightly, that would be one thing. But a14 county V, 7 hours if you drive from one end to the next staying within the district in a state that takes 4 hours to drive through? A 16 county squiggle?  Arlington split into multiple districts?  Fairfax with 5 districts within 10 minutes?  Alexandria in a district with multiple rural counties 3-4 hours drive away?

This is a horrific map that disenfranchises the entire state.  It is a short sighted, political mistake, that is bad for Virginia and bad for the country.

You all complain continuously about the damage our one party school board has done to our FCPS schools.

Families throughout the county, rich, poor, citizen, recent immigrant, liberal, conservative and politically disengaged fought tooth and nail for almost 2 years against this same kind of gerrymandering of our public school boundaries.

You used very similar arguments that are valid against this gerrymandering.

Why on earth would you throw away our constitutional protections against political tyranny and gerrymandering, just because the legislature used "fair" in the title of their proposal and "but Texas" in their commercials?

Gerrymandering was a terrible idea when the school board wanted to do it during rezoning, and is a terrible idea now when they want to throw out our state constitution for a pi$$ing match with Texas.

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